1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to circuits with voltage and current sensing and, more specifically, the present invention relates to current and voltage sensing in circuits with voltage drop.
2. Background Information
Most battery operated portable electronic products such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc. require a low power alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) charger power supply with a constant voltage and constant current (CC/CV) characteristics for charging batteries. Most of these chargers require relatively accurate and expensive circuitry to meet the specified current and voltage tolerances over temperature.
In a known circuit, voltage is sensed by using an accurate programmable reference IC such as a TL431, which drives an opto-coupler feedback circuit to control the output voltage at a programmed value set by external resistors. A relatively high level of accuracy is needed at the output of the charger circuit in order to meet a lower accuracy at the load due to voltage drop in the output cable that connects the charger to the load (the electronic product). The voltage drop in the output cable reduces the output voltage as load increases degrading the overall voltage tolerance at the load. A required level of voltage accuracy at the charger output can be achieved by choosing a TL431 IC that has been trimmed to the appropriate accuracy level. TL431s with 3%, 2% and 1% accuracy are widely available. TL431 voltage reference is generally more expensive than a simple zener reference. However, zeners are generally difficult to get at tolerance below 2% and the zener voltage varies with the current through it, resulting in a poorer load regulation in circuits that have zener currents that vary with output load due to low gain of the feedback loop. In addition, they are only available in certain standard voltage values, which makes it difficult to center the output voltage at the optimum point for the best tolerance.
For low cost, the current sensing in low power applications (e.g.  less than 5W) is usually done by using a voltage drop across a current sense resistor to turn on a bipolar a transistor. This circuit uses the base emitter voltage, VBE of the transistor as a reference. The transistor in turn drives an optocoupler feedback circuit to control the output current at a constant value. The constant current limit set by such a circuit, however, has a large temperature variation due to the high temperature coefficient of VBE (xe2x88x922 mV/xc2x0 C.). This can be compensated to the first order by using a thermister based resistor network which add to the component count and cost.
Methods and apparatuses for sensing current and voltage in circuits with voltage drop are disclosed. In one aspect of the invention, a current sense circuit is described including a series combination of a diode and a resistor in the path of the current to be sensed, the voltage across this series combination coupled to drive an light emitting diode (LED). In one embodiment, the LED is part of an optocoupler and the optocoupler is part of a feedback circuit of a switched mode power supply. In one embodiment, the diode is a PN junction diode.
In another aspect of the invention, a current and voltage sense circuit is described including a current sense circuit having a series combination of a diode and a resistor in the path of a load current supplied from an output and the voltage across this series combination is coupled to drive an LED. The current and voltage sense circuit also includes a voltage sense circuit coupled to the output. The voltage sense circuit includes a voltage reference coupled to the base of a bipolar transistor. The bipolar transistor drives the LED when the voltage at the output exceeds a sense voltage of the voltage sense circuit. The voltage reference is a zener and the sense voltage of the voltage sense circuit is the sum of the voltage across the zener and the forward base emitter voltage (VBE) of the bipolar transistor. In one embodiment, the LED is part of an optocoupler and the optocoupler is part of a feedback circuit of switched mode power supply. In one embodiment, the diode is a PN junction diode.
In yet another aspect of the invention, a voltage drop compensation circuit is described including a voltage sense circuit coupled across a voltage output. The voltage sense circuit includes a voltage reference coupled to drive the base of the bipolar transistor when the voltage at the voltage output exceeds a sense voltage of the voltage sense circuit. A compensation resistor is coupled to the voltage output to carry a current that substantially represents the current that flows from the voltage output to a load that is coupled to the output. The sum of the voltage across the compensation resistor and the forward base emitter voltage of the bipolar transistor is applied across a series combination of a second resistor and a diode. The current through the second resistor is used to alter the sense voltage of the voltage sense circuit. In one embodiment, the sense voltage is increased as the current to the load increases. In one embodiment, the diode is replaced by a short circuit. In one embodiment, the voltage reference is a zener and the sense voltage of the voltage sense circuit is the sum of the voltage across the zener and the forward base emitter voltage (VBE) of the bipolar transistor and, the current through the second resistor is passed through the zener. In one embodiment, the voltage sense circuit further includes a third resistor and the sense voltage is the sum of the voltage across the voltage reference, the voltage across the third resistor and the forward emitter bias voltage of the bipolar transistor and, the current through the second resistor is passed through the third resistor. In one embodiment, the diode is a PN junction diode. In one embodiment, the bipolar transistor drives an LED of an optocoupler and the optocoupler is part of a feedback circuit of switched mode power supply.
In still another aspect of the present invention, a voltage drop compensation circuit is described, which includes a voltage sense circuit coupled across a voltage output. The voltage sense circuit includes a first resistor coupled to a zener, which is coupled to drive an LED of an optocoupler when the voltage at the voltage output exceeds a sense voltage of the voltage sense circuit. The sense voltage of the voltage sense circuit is the sum of the voltage across the zener and the forward voltage of the optocoupler LED and the voltage across the first resistor. The voltage sense circuit also includes a current sense circuit, which provides a voltage representative of current delivered to a load coupled to the voltage output. The voltage sense circuit also includes a voltage compensation circuit coupled to change the voltage across the first resistor of the voltage sense circuit responsive to the voltage provided by the current sense circuit. In one embodiment, the voltage across the first resistor is increased as the current supplied to the load increases. In one embodiment, the current sense circuit includes a series combination of a second resistor and a diode. In one embodiment, the voltage compensation circuit includes a third resistor coupled to the emitter of a bipolar transistor and a series combination of the third resistor and a base emitter junction of the bipolar transistor is coupled across the current sense circuit, such that the collector current of the transistor is proportional to the voltage across the second resistor. In one embodiment, the bipolar transistor collector is coupled to the first resistor such that the voltage drop across the first resistor is responsive to the voltage across the second resistor. In one embodiment, the optocoupler is part of a feedback circuit of switched mode power supply. Additional features and benefits of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description and figures set forth below.